One conventional network arrangement, e.g., a Bridged Ethernet network, permits a certain percentage (e.g., 75 percent) of network bandwidth to be set aside for reservation to one or more communication streams. In this arrangement, the transmissions of frames in the streams that have such reservations may be timed in such a way as to evenly distribute their transmissions within an observation interval, subject to other communication that may interfere with the communication streams, and based upon the total amount of bandwidth that is actually reserved. For example, according to this arrangement, if the total available bandwidth is 1 gigabit per second and the certain percentage is 75 percent, 750 megabits per second are available for possible reservation, and the total bandwidth that is actually reserved is 100 megabits per second, then the arrangement will allocate 10 percent of the total frame transmission time to transmission of frames belonging to streams that have reservations, and the transmissions of such frames will be evenly distributed (subject to the rules of the transmission medium and pending completion of transmission of already-in-flight or higher priority frames) within the allocated 10 percent of the total frame transmission time and the interval over which the bandwidth reservation is specified (e.g., the observation interval).
In this conventional arrangement, multiple frames (including the final frame) in a given stream may be received and contemporaneously queued at a given intermediate hop before being transmitted from the hop. If these frames include the final frame, the final frame may remain queued for transmission in the hop until after all other frames in the stream have been transmitted from the hop. If, after all of the other frames in the stream have been transmitted from the hop, but the final frame has yet to be transmitted from the hop, a relatively higher priority frame (e.g., relative to the current transmission priority of or credits associated with the final frame) is selected for transmission from the hop, the final frame in the stream may not be transmitted until after the relatively higher priority frame has been transmitted. This may increase the latency of the final frame and/or the stream. This increased latency of the final frame and/or stream may be exacerbated if the relatively higher priority frame has a relatively large size that consumes a relatively large amount of time to be transmitted from the hop (e.g., relative to the size and transmission time of the final frame). This may often be the case, since it is not uncommon for such a final frame to be an order of magnitude smaller in size than the largest permitted Ethernet frame. Additional latencies may be introduced, for similar and/or analogous reasons, at multiple of the stream's hops. The resultant aggregated latency of the final frame and/or stream may be significant.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the claimed subject matter be viewed broadly.